Monthly Archive for April, 2013

TWO HOUR BLOCKADE PREVENTS HUNDREDS OF MILITARY PERSONNEL FROM ENTERING DRONE SUPPORT BASE

Marysville, California – Five people were arrested around 8 a.m. on April 30 after dozens of anti-drone demonstrators blocked the entrance to Beale Air Force Base for hours, resulting in hundreds of vehicles being prevented from entering the base.

The California Highway Patrol had to be called in to clear traffic, which had lines of hundreds of cars in several directions after peace advocates from Sacramento, San Francisco, Nevada City and as far away as Fresno protested President Obama’s U.S. killer drone program.

DEFENDANTS MAY NOT TELL THE WHOLE TRUTH – ONLY THE PART THE JUDGE ALLOWS

Judge Amul Thapar issued rulings on a number of motions before him in the Transform Now Plowshares case scheduled to go to trial on May 7 in federal court in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Thapar’s ruling denies the Plowshares resisters most of the defenses available to them—he ruled out using the necessity defense, any use of the Nuremberg principles, the first amendment, or any testimony about faith, religious or other good motives.

The police on Saturday, April 20 arrested as many as 146 activists, including 105 men, 36 women and five children of the Anti-Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project People’s Federation when they tried to take out a procession from Kanyakumari to Kudankulam.

The activists, who gathered in front of Gandhi Mandapam in Kanyakumari, urged the government to take immediate steps to close the Kalpakkam Atomic Power Project as well as Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project, as it would adversely affect the livelihood of fishermen, farmers and other people.

Last summer, in the dead of night, three peace activists penetrated the exterior of Y-12 in Tennessee, supposedly one of the most secure nuclear-weapons facilities in the United States. A drifter, an 82-year-old nun and a house painter. They face trial next week on charges that fall under the sabotage section of the U.S. criminal code. And if they had been terrorists armed with explosives, intent on mass destruction? That nightmare scenario underlies the government’s response to the intrusion. This is the story of two competing worldviews, of conscience vs. court, of fantasy vs. reality, of history vs. the future.

TORONTO — On Monday afternoon, during a court-martial hearing at Fort Carson, Colorado, Kimberly Rivera was sentenced to 14 months in military prison and a dishonourable discharge after publicly expressing her conscientious objection to the Iraq War while in Canada. A pre-trial agreement capped the sentence at 10 months of confinement and a bad conduct discharge.

Private First Class Kimberly Rivera deployed to Iraq in 2006 and sought asylum in Canada in 2007 because she decided she could no longer be complicit in the war. A mother of four young children—including two who were born in Canada—she was forced back to the United States of America by the Conservative government after receiving a negative decision on her pre-removal risk assessment (PRRA).

Next week (May 6th) our friends from the Transform Now Plowshares community will begin trial before Federal District Judge Amul Thapar in Knoxville, TN.

Since last year their disarmament action has kept the government and its contractors hopping as they have sought to downplay the significance of this witness and kept the focus off the dangerous criminality of the nuclear arsenal itself and the role of the Oak Ridge Y12 plant in that continuing threat to creation. For their truthfulness on July 28th and subsequently, Greg Bortje-Obed, Megan Rice and Michael Walli are facing two felony charges, including a charge under the Sabotage Act, and risking 30 years in prison.

Thirty one members of the “Upstate Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars” were arrested on April 28 at Hancock Air Base protesting what they believe is the illegal use of drones in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries. Drones are flown from Hancock Field. Over 275 people marched in a solemn funeral procession to demand that Hancock Air National Guard Base cease drone strikes. People carrying banners and coffins identified countries where U.S. drone attacks have killed over a thousand innocent civilians. As they were arrested, some read the names of people who have died in the drone attacks.

DALLAS, TEXAS — Two activists wearing large paper mache masks resembling former President George W. Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney were arrested Thursday, April 25 for stepping into a street during a protest of the George W. Bush presidential library.

The arrests, mere blocks away from the library on the Southern Methodist University campus, were the high-water mark of a protest that drew about 200 people, many of them wearing black clothing and white masks, carrying cards with the names of soldiers and civilians who died in Iraq, Afghanistan, and from suicide here in the U.S.

Activist Liu Yuandong, a businessman, was detained on 23 February in Guangzhou, China after he took part in a protest against North Korea’s nuclear tests. He is at risk of torture and other ill-treatment.

Liu Yuandong, a 35-year-old businessman, protested with several other people against North Korea’s nuclear tests on 23 February in the southern city of Guangzhou. They were all detained, and given administrative detention orders ranging from seven to 15 days for violating the Law on Assemblies, Processions and Demonstrations. All but Liu Yuandong have since been released, and have told the media they were deprived of sleep in custody.